Carla Keaton

Carla Keaton received her degree in Painting and Physical Anthropology from Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ. In Addition to working as a professional artist, Carla has volunteered in several archaeology, anthropology and paleontology labs across Arizona, and was a former member of SWAT (Southwest Archaeology Team). Her artwork has been featured in several art galleries in the United States including Arizona, Washington and Mississippi. In January 2016, Carla was awarded the Artist Research and Development Grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, the State of Arizona and the National Endowment of the Arts. The grant was awarded to fund the Carla’s project, The Sharecroppers and the Cotton Pickers of The Southwest. In 2023, she was awarded the Artist to Work Grant from the Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture to complete the project. She is an illustrator for the magazines Anthropology News, Anthropology Now, and Sapiens magazines, as well as a contract illustrator for the French Red Cross. She is a portrait artist, children’s book illustrator and public artist as well. She owned and operated two art galleries in Arizona. Gallery Serendipity in the downtown Phoenix Arts district from 2012 to 2014, and Keaton Fine Art; A Global Encounter in Superior Arizona from 2015 to 2016. Carla currently resides in Phoenix, Arizona. Inspiration for my paintings come from a need to capture, define, record and communicate the histories, stories and moments in time, experienced by human beings globally. These recorded “moments” serve as a portal, offering the viewer access to the lives and souls of those captured on canvas, and the lives and souls of us all.